Mountain Biking: Rubber side down- And Now, Back to Your Local News…Since the weather’s getting better, I’m sure we’re all totally jonesing to get onto the trails, but in general, they’re a mess. It’s a bummer to see nice singletracks get trashed and widened, so like all of you, I’m grinding my teeth in annoyance while I try to be patient. The good news is that you [...] […]
- Downieville, Take ThreeOkay, well, things went pretty haywire in race promotion after the registration debacle. The organizer received so many hateful emails and comments about the mishap that it made him wonder if he should even bother putting the race on. I can’t blame him, really. In his shoes I might do the same thing. It sounds [...] […]
- And Now, Back to Your Local News…
- Edgy Veggie
Fun with snowfall stats for the Denver area
Snow day! Except with more… work.
We’re supposed to get nearly a foot in Boulder today, which is making it a little more difficult for me to do what I need to do today, but if you want to be the really cool kid in the office, here are some NOAA Boulder/Denver area snow stats to bandy about. As we all know, March is the big month for snow, so there’s no sense being surprised at this!
| 2009-2010 | Oct09 | Nov09 | Dec09 | Jan10 | Feb10 | Mar10 | Apr10 | May10 | Jun10 | Total |
| DENVER | 17.2 | 9.3 | 11.1 | 2.6 | *** | *** | *** | *** | *** | 40.2 |
|
Cumulative |
6.2 | 16.9 | 25.6 | 33.3 | 39.6 | 51.3 | 60.4 | 61.7 | T | 61.7 |
|
Monthly |
4.1 | 10.7 | 8.7 | 7.7 | 6.3 | 11.7 | 9.1 | 1.3 |
T |
61.7 |
DIA sewage spill of 1m gallons may head for Barr Lake
The largest airport in the country, with the “greenest” parking lot, is in a bit of environmental trouble: a DIA raw sewage spill may have sent a million gallons of disgusting into waterways that can feed into the Barr Lake fishery and bird sanctuary (enjoy that, bald eagles).
A DIA sewage spill sent a lot of gross out into the world -- where will it land? | flickr user luschei
Earth Hour 2010 in Boulder
On March 27, 2010 cities around the world will turn off their lights for one hour to raise global awareness of climate change. | From flickr user aussiegall
At 8:30 p.m. March 27, you can join people around the globe in celebrating Earth Hour by shutting off your lights for one hour. During Earth Hour 2009, almost one billion people worldwide participated in this call for action against global climate change. Stepping it up this year should be easy and fun for Boulderites who can celebrate Earth Hour at these cool events:
- The St. Julien Hotel & Spa twill be throwing its own its own Earth Hour celebration with a candlelit happy hour and free, live entertainment. Guests can enjoy locally grown, sustainable food and drinks from 5 p.m. to close and will partake in a celebratory toast and lights out ceremony at 8:30 p.m.
- ReSource, the waste reduction division of the Center for ReSource Conservation, will be be celebrating its grand opening from 5-9 p.m. by hosting an Earth Hour party equipped with fireside music, local artisans, free refreshments, raffles, creative workshops, and a silent auction. For more information visit resourceyard.org.
- Also, be sure to keep an eye on the Boulder/Denver Grey Wolves meetup group, who are planning an Earth Hour gathering with a TBD location.
So whether you are staying at home, or going out for a night on the town, helping to create awareness is as easy as the flip of a light switch. Click here to find out more about Earth Hour.
If you’ve got an Earth Hour event in the area that we haven’t listed, let us know in the comments!
–Lindsay Gulisano
Conservatives pound on Boulder climbing gym’s solar array
A Boulder climbing gym has been taking a beating by conservatives for its solar array.
On Friday, right-wing talk show host Sean Hannity listed the 100-kilowatt solar array at Movement Climbing and Fitness as second on his list of the “102 worst ways the president’s stimulus bill has wasted your money.”
“And the No. 2 entry on our list is a climbing gym in Boulder, Colorado, that has received more than $150,000 for a new solar panel array on its roof,” Hannity said on his opinion show that airs on the Fox News channel. “Now, aren’t there a few mountains in Colorado where people can climb actual rocks outside under the real sun?” Read more
Beetle-kill wood from Colorado is hard to come by
Boulder-based Berlin Flooring recently replaced flooring at the Chautauqua Ranger Cottage with Colorado beetle-kill pine wood. Other groups have had a hard time finding contractors who use local beetle-kill pine wood. (Nicholas Duckworth )
More than 40,000 acres of forest in Boulder County have been devastated by pine beetles — and more than 1.5 million acres across the state.
That’s a lot of dead trees. And, it seems, a lot of people are interested in using wood from beetle-kill trees for flooring, furniture and paneling. But as it turns out, it’s easier (and cheaper) to get beetle-kill wood — which has a pleasant blue stain — from other Western states with larger existing lumber industries than from Colorado.
Compared to Canada and other states with more established lumber industries, Colorado has smaller mills, fewer logging arterial roads and skinnier diameter trees. Canada beats the market in price and quantity for many reasons, including subsidy programs, according to the Washington, D.C.-based Coalition for Fair Lumber Imports.
The end result for Colorado is a smaller variety of finished beetle-kill wood products, higher prices and fewer finishing capabilities — like kiln-dried as opposed to air-dried. Many contractors demand kiln-dried beetle-kill wood for its resiliency. Read more
Boulder cyclists can now get bike-friendly directions from Google Maps
Google Maps now shows bike paths and bike lanes for Boulder. Click to enlarge!
Google Maps has just launched a new “biking layer” for 150 U.S. cities including Boulder. This potentially awesome feature should be able to give bike-specific directions, routing cyclists onto paved multi-use paths and streets that are friendlier to two-wheeled commuters.
Check it out at Google Maps by clicking on “bicycling” under the “more” drop-down menu, or click on the photo above to check it out here.
Dark green indicates dedicated bike trails (like the Boulder Creek Path), light green are roads with bike lanes and dotted green lines indicate roads with no bike lanes but which have lower volume of traffic or safer intersections. Read more
Two Colorado-dwellers up for Treehugger awards
Treehugger's Best of Green Awards -- voting is open now.
Waylon Lewis and David Quilty, of Boulder and Denver respectively, are up for Best of Green Awards over at Treehugger in the category of Best Ambassador of Environmental Culture. Via elephantjournal:
The Treehugger Best of Green 2010 Reader’s Choice Awards include 40 prize categories across 8 main topics, and there are some great names and friends of ours! that have been nominated, like Eco Salon, Derek Markham, Bike Portland, Nau Clothing, Bill McKibben, Huffington Post Green, Alexandra Cousteau, and many many more.
It’s vote-driven, so get on out there and make it happen for your local greenies, if you’re so inclined.
(One former winner lives in Colorado, too.)
What does it take to make a change to a hiking trail?
The Boulder Reporter presents a look at trying to make a change to one of Boulder’s many trails — in this case, Goat Trail, which hooks up with the Sanitas Valley Trail a bit northwest of Boulder Community Hospital.
I don’t know much about the issue in question, but either way, making a change at all doesn’t sound all too easy… (FYI, the map on the story’s page is rotated; it is oriented so that the top part of the map points west).
They presented their opinion that the trail was too steep, erosion-prone and dangerous, and offered an option that would substitute an easier path from Hawthorne up and over the ridge.
Read on about The Great Goat Trail Debate.
“The Cove” Oscar coverage roundup: cameras, speeches and the new “Cove” TV show
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT…
In addition to the recent news development from the “Cove” team busting a restaurant serving illegal whale meat, here are some tidbits of “Cove” coverage from the aftermath of that film’s big Oscar win in the documentary category.
Plenty has been said about Ric O’Barry’s unfurling of a banner reading “TEXT DOLPHIN to 44144,” by folks like Mother Jones, Treehugger, the Huffington Post, Ellen DeGeneres, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer (which gave the acceptance speech an award for “Fastest cutaway”), Louie Psihoyos:
Still, Mr. Psihoyos said, “it’s hard to get all huffy about that stuff. It’s like spilled milk.”
and O’Barry himself:
“I had butterflies in my stomach. I wanted to throw up on my shoes. But I knew that one billion people were watching, and I had to do it.”
Here’s what Psihoyos says he would have said, if not cut off:
The mayor of Taiji — the city that reluctantly starred in the film — responded to the film’s win by saying that “The Cove” was unreasonable:
In a statement reported by The Associated Press, the office of the mayor of Taiji defended the village’s practices and said “The Cove” contained statements that were not based on science. “There are different food traditions within Japan and around the world,” the statement said. “It is important to respect and understand regional food cultures, which are based on traditions with long histories.”
When asked about the win, the filmmakers have mostly sounded like this: Read more
“Sizzle,” the global warming comedy
"Sizzle" features... this?
Have you seen “Sizzle?” The film is about global warming, but it’s no “Inconvenient Truth” — it’s more of a this-global-thermometer-goes-up-to-11 type of flick.
A mockumentary about global warming. What do you think? Better or worse approach than the straight-ahead documentary (Oscar-winners notwithstanding)?
